Agrippa Castor

Agrippa, surnamed Castor, a man of great learning, wrote a strong refutation of the twenty-four volumes which Basilides the heretic had written against the gospel. He laid bare all his mysteries and listed his prophets Barcabbas and Barchob, and all the other barbarous names that terrify those who hear them, and his most high God, Abraxas, whose name was supposed to contain the year according to the reckoning of the Greeks. Basilides died at Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian, and from him the Gnostic sects arose. In this stormy time also, Cochebas, the leader of the Jewish faction, put Christians to death with various tortures. [a]